


our kingdom awaits

by Pawprinter



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Spoilers, The 100 (TV) Season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26744482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pawprinter/pseuds/Pawprinter
Summary: 7x16 spoilers...“When they said the human species would transcend, they meant all of us. And we all chose to come back.”or - the one where Clarke and Bellamy are reunited.a 7x16 fix-it fic
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 125
Kudos: 368
Collections: Bellarke Bingo





	our kingdom awaits

**Author's Note:**

> ## SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
>  **This fic contains spoilers for 7x16!!!! LOOK AWAY IF YOU DONT WANT THEM!!!!!**
> 
> it's your resident clown back with some fix-its for the heart.
> 
> Welcome to me crying about canon. (At least we'll always have fic.)
> 
> That finale needs a little dash of Bellamy Blake and Bellarke, so, hmm... let's fix that.
> 
> Reminder that this fic is purely cathartic and nobody should come at me for not knowing what actually went on this season!!! because !!! wow !!!! i dont know what happened in the last 16 episodes but WHAT WAS THAT.
> 
> This is also written for [Bellarke Bingo](https://bellarkebingo.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr because it's been a hot minute since I contributed something, and I kept looking at my bingo card to see how many tropes I could include in this lil one-shot. I managed to use four; mutual pining, fix-it fic, hurt/comfort and 'I thought I lost you.'
> 
> Rated Teen for coarse language.
> 
> Note: the title is inspired by the song “Coming Home” by Diddy — Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey.
> 
> Enjoy!!
> 
> ps - if you clicked on this fic within the hour of it being posted... im sorry lmao. I accidentally included THE WHOLE PLOT PLAN??? AT THE START??? so uh. that's fun. you lucky people got SPOILED and also got to see exactly what I put when plotting out a fic. MY BAD. the actual fic is here now so uh. yeahhh.

The first breath of forever felt heavier than it should’ve.

Clarke emerged from the bunker on Earth with Picasso at her side and an ache in her chest.

The ground was soft under her feet, but there was a solid iron block resting in her gut, weighing her down when she should’ve felt the most free she had ever been.

_ It was over. _

_ It was all over. _

It was hard to wrap her mind around it; the final bit of blood on her hands, the final test, the final goodbye, the emptiness of the worlds connected across the vastness of space.

And, now, the loneliness.

With the bunker behind and the world before her, Clarke sucked in breath after breath and surveyed what she had to work with.

This was where she was going to spend the rest of her days — alone.

It was poetic in a way; this was where it all began.

_ Earth. _

Earth was the dream, and now it was the nightmare.

“Today, water and shelter. Tomorrow, food. Okay?”

It was her luck that, seconds after making a plan for survival, it went up in flames. In the distance, a bird let out a squawk, and Picasso was gone.

“Damn it! Picasso! Come!”

_ This was familiar  _ — running through the forest, trees slapping against her skin, earth sliding beneath her feet. It was so familiar to all the years she spent on this planet, yet it never felt further from her memory.

_ She was alone. _

It had never happened before. 

Even when she thought she was going to be alone for five years on the surface after Praimfaya, there was always a thought —  _ there was always the hope —  _ that her friends would return to her. Bellamy, Raven, Murphy, Emori, Monty, Harper, and Echo; they’d all come from space. Her mother, Kane, Octavia, and Miller; they’d all emerge from the bunker.

Even on her darkest days when the flame of hope flickered in her chest, she knew there was a possibility they’d come back and things could return to  _ normal. _

This time, it was different.

That fire of hope had been extinguished when she saw the lights on Bardo.

_ There was no returning to normal after this. _

It was her, alone in the universe, with a dog at her side and a gaping wound in her chest.

“Picasso?” Clarke cried again, her voice wavering with desperation. “Picasso!”

Quickly, the trees thinned. The dirt under foot turned to stone. The calls of birds turned to waves crashing against the shore.

A horrible feeling settled across her shoulders as reality sunk in.

_ Picasso was gone. _

Picasso was gone, and now she was truly alone.

Despite the open ocean in front of her and the clear sky above, it was impossible to breathe. It felt as though she was getting dragged beneath the waves and water was filling her lungs.

She was drowning.

“Picasso,” she called, her voice wavering. “Please come back! I don’t want to be alone.” Quieter this time, “I don’t want to be alone.”

“You’re not.”

A wave of mixed emotions slammed against Clarke as Lexa — or, not-Lexa — appeared beside her. The being from the final test was wearing the face of Lexa and it was amazing, and beautiful, and horribly gut-wrenching. Seeing Lexa again was something she dreamed of, but  _ this wasn’t really her.  _ It was someone else  _ pretending,  _ and that  _ hurt  _ more than she could express.

“What do you want?”

The ache she felt in her chest expanded as they walked along the shore of the beach. Not-Lexa continued to speak, and each word was a sharper and harsher reminder that—

_ —she was alone. _

The only person —  _ being _ — left to talk to her was the shell of someone from her past. No  _ human  _ was left and—

_ Fuck, it hurt. _

But, as she told not-Lexa, she would bear it so they wouldn’t have to.

_ Always. _

She would always take on this burden — even if it meant living and dying alone, one of her greatest fears after spending months alone on a desolate Earth. She’d bear it so the people she loved could be free.

And, transcendence sounded like it was going to be the final and infinite freedom they all deserved.

_ Well,  _ that wasn’t exactly true.

_ Bellamy deserved it, too. _

That thought caused a pain so deep that it could’ve cut her to the bone. 

Maybe she really was dying for all the hurt she caused in the world because, suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. It felt as though her heart was being ripped from her chest, taking all the life left in her with it.

Bellamy deserved to transcend. He deserved better than the fate she dealt him.

That rash and thoughtless decision she made on Sanctum all those days ago — the decision that caused her to panic and pull the trigger, the decision that caused Bellamy — _her Bellamy —_ to fall to the floor and bleed out in _fucking Disciples uniform_ — it was one she was going to spend eternity thinking about.

_ Thinking, and regretting, and grieving, and wishing for a chance to fix it, and hating herself for making that horrible choice. _

Her biggest regret when they arrived on Sanctum suddenly felt insignificant to this one.

_ Leaving Bellamy to die in the fighting pits was not as horrible as pulling the trigger that ended his life. _

She desperately pulled herself out of this line of thought and focused on her conversation with the woman —  _ being _ — beside her.

“I’d do it again,” she said, referring to shooting Cadogan while taking the test, and it was the truth. That man was the stem of so much hurt in all their lives; she didn’t regret shooting him.

“Madi knew you’d say that.”

The hope that filled her chest briefly eclipsed the pain and regret she harboured. “Madi’s with you then?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. Her consciousness has joined ours. She’s at peace. She’ll never feel pain, she’ll never die.” Clarke fought the rising tears. It was impossible to breathe past the growing lump in her throat because —  _ Madi.  _ She was safe and happy. She’d gladly spend a thousand years alone if it meant she was finally free. “She knew that living here without anyone her age to love is something you wouldn’t have wanted for her, even if it meant you being alone. I suppose that choice was made easier with the realization you wouldn’t be.”

_ Clarke couldn’t breathe again. _

“Transcendence is a choice?” Hope was dangerous, she knew this, yet she felt it building in her like a summer storm, wiping away all logic and self-preservation. “You can... you can  _ choose _ to come back?”

“Of course. Although, until now, no one ever had.”

The words rang in her ears as sharply as the familiar laugh that followed.

_ Until now. _

_ Until now. _

_ Until now. _

She stumbled forward, moving closer to the shore, and—

_ There. _

Raven was laughing in the distance, looking so free and  _ happy  _ that it brought tears to her eyes. And  _ Murphy —  _ he was turned fully towards her, his arm extended in the air, beckoning her over.

“Hey! There she is!”

_ She had a better chance at stopping the Earth from spinning than stopping herself from racing towards them. _

The rocks were slick under her feet, and her heart was pounding in her chest, and her tears blurred the world around her, but then Raven’s arms were around her shoulders and Murphy’s hands were on her back and—

“We were waiting for you,” Raven said, her voice so strong and  _ so real _ that Clarke could feel it in her own chest. She clung to her, her fingers curling into the red jacket, because she never thought she’d feel this again.

“You only took forever, Griffin,” Murphy commented dryly. She pulled away from Raven and launched herself at him. “Geez, never knew you loved me so much. You’re dripping snot all over me.”

Her laugh was wet and made to pull away. “Sorry, sorry, I just—”

“No.” Murphy’s arms tightened around her, stopping her from leaving. “I’m not complaining. Snot is fine by me. I draw the line at puke though, so, watch yourself.”

Her mind was reeling. The soft chatter of the group in the distance was washed away by the rush of blood in her ears. Her mind spiralled uncontrollably around one single thought.

“Why?” she croaked, still not pulling away from him. “Why’d you come back?”

“What?” Raven laughed. “You thought we’d leave you here all alone?”

“I thought you hated me.” She broke from Murphy’s hug and wiped her tears away frantically. “You sure as hell acted like it.”

“Let’s just say dying puts things in perspective.” He threw his arm around Raven’s shoulders and grinned widely at her. “Wouldn’t you say, Reyes? That warm golden light really  _ changes  _ you. It sweeps you off your feet and pulls you towards the sky and—”

She elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up.” The two women looked at each other with varying expressions of amusement as Murphy doubled over. “I’ve  _ been  _ through transcendence and I’m already sick of all the times he’s mentioned it.”

“Hey,” he choked, “the rest of them  _ all _ appreciate my stories.”

Her mind latched onto one word.

“All?”

And, as if the universe finally wasn’t against her, the questions in her mind and hope in her soul were answered.

“No,” a voice said from behind Murphy and Raven, “we don’t  _ all  _ appreciate it, Murph.”

_ That voice knocked the breath from her chest. _

With her mind spinning and her blood turned to ice, Clarke frantically stumbled around her two friends, desperate and hopeful and—

_ There. _

Bellamy stood a few paces away, a half-smile on his lips and  _ life  _ in his eyes.

The world was ripped out from under her.

“Hey, princess.”

_ Fuck,  _ he hadn’t called her that in ages.

Before another second could pass her by, she raced forward and  _ threw  _ herself at him. In pure Bellamy fashion, he caught her and they clicked together like they always had. His arms tightened around her waist, encasing her in a hug so tight that it pushed all the pieces of her broken soul together. Her nose was buried against his neck and she  _ sobbed,  _ soaking his blue shirt — one achingly familiar to the one he loved back when they were simply delinquents.

He smelled as he always had — he  _ felt  _ like he always had — he  _ held her  _ like he always had.

It was as if no time had passed since they were last on Earth together; like nothing between them had changed at all; like he hadn’t  _ died  _ by her hand.

He was alive.

_ He was alive. _

The world around her didn’t matter — not Murphy, or Raven, or the camp in the distance — only  _ he  _ did.

His arms.

His warmth.

His rising chest.

_ Just him. _

_ Just Bellamy. _

She couldn’t get any words out between her sobs — hell, she couldn’t fucking  _ breathe.  _ All she could do was hold him, and hold him, and hold him, and—

“It’s okay,” he told her, his voice calming the storm inside her. He always knew the exact thing to say to make things feel better — or, maybe it was just  _ him  _ in general that made things better. “It’s okay.”

_ Was it though? _

She felt dizzy with confusion and grief and regret and  _ hope.  _

Fuck, she had so much hope.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed.  _ Those were her first words to him in what felt much longer than a few days.  _ “I’m so sorry.”

“I know.”

_ After all, he always knew her the best. _

It took all her strength to pull away and look him in the eyes. “You’re— I don’t— I don’t understand.” Needing confirmation of what she was seeing in front of her, she grasped his forearm as tight as they could bear. “You’re here. You’re  _ alive.  _ How? I don’t— It doesn’t make sense.”

“Does any of this make sense?” The smile he gave her reminded her of all the jokes that only they understood, and all the nights they spent on watch at the Dropship, and—  _ all of this reminded her of those early days.  _ The curl to his hair, the freckles on his skin, the clothes on his back, the  _ sureness  _ of his smile. It was enough to cause her to feel like she was in free-fall. “We all came from a planet light years away after being transformed into balls of light because humanity passed the test given by an immortal being that we accessed through a magic rock.”

“But  _ you.  _ I—” Her mouth couldn’t form the right words. “Levitt said that only the  _ living _ could transcend. You were… I thought I lost you.”

“I died,” he said so she didn’t have to. The smile he wore only seconds before had melted away, being replaced with a stony expression that hurt her heart. That guilt she felt seconds before was rising again, this time sharper and stronger. “Levitt… he learned everything from Cadogan though, and Cadogan got a lot of things wrong. He thought transcendence was going to be achieved by fighting a war, not taking a test. He was wrong about that, and he was wrong about this too.”

“You were right though,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “You were right about transcendence and I didn’t listen. I— I—  _ fuck.” _

“Hey,” he said, his voice low and his eyes boring into hers, “we’ll get through this.”

Again, her remorse and guilt crashed against her like a wave. 

“Bellamy, I’m so sorry.”

_ It felt as though everything was eating her away from the inside.  _ All her mistakes, all her rash decisions — all of the ones centering around Bellamy. Hurting him, abandoning him,  _ killing him. _

She’d never forgive herself for that.

She didn’t deserve this after all she’d done — his smiles, and his arms around her, and  _ him. _

Clarke pulled away from him abruptly. Tears were blurring her vision again, but for an entirely different reason than before. 

_ She was spiralling. _

“I can’t— I— I’m  _ sorry.  _ I—”

It was his hands that brought her back to the moment. 

It was his touch that brought her feet back to Earth and stopped the ground from pulling out from under her.

_ And it was his words that caused her chest to cave in. _

“If you need forgiveness,” he began, “I’ll give that to you. You’re forgiven.”

Those words — they were ones that they’d shared back and forth over the years. They were ones that kept her  _ sane  _ in the days after Mount Weather, and she knew they gave Bellamy comfort after they killed Dax.

_ Forgiveness. _

“You can’t forgive me for that,” she said, her voice wobbling. “You  _ can’t.” _

“It’s already done.” His hands felt so good on her arms, and she couldn’t bring herself to push them away, not after living without them for what felt like so long. “We need to talk about things — of course we do — but  _ I’ll forgive you.” _

“No.”

“Like Murphy said, dying put things in perspective for us. We all did horrible things to survive, and now we get a new start. War took away so many choices from us, now we’re free. We can choose whatever the hell we want, and  _ I choose this.  _ I choose forgiveness. I choose a fresh start. I choose life with you on Earth.”

She could sense the honesty in his words, but she couldn’t truly believe them.

“How can you forgive me when I can’t even forgive myself?”

“Because I love you, Clarke.”  _ That  _ stole the words from her mouth and forced all the oxygen to leave her all at once. She couldn’t pull her gaze from his even if she wanted to, just as she couldn’t pull away from his touch. “I  _ love _ you, Clarke.” His expression flickered. “Do you love me?”

She swallowed thickly. “I mean… of course. You’re my best friend.”

_ You’re my best friend and so much more. _

_ The breath in my lungs. _

_ The calmness amongst the storm. _

_ The heart to my head. _

She struggled to keep herself from launching at him as flashes of their shared life went by her. 

Leading the hundred on the ground. Fighting wars shoulder-to-shoulder. Bearing burdens together. Forgiving each other over and over. Choosing him over the human race in the bunker. Calling him for 2199 days. Looking out at a new world with him at her side. Dreaming of fresh starts and new lives on Sanctum. Waking up after being murdered to  _ him  _ at her side, and his hands on her face, and his breath in her lungs. 

She thought of all those moments, and the moments in-between.  _ The times where she couldn’t look away from his lips; the times where she dreamed of his arms; the days where she doubted she could live another second without confessing how much he meant to her; the years she spent loving him; the moments where she thought they would finally get together. _

Clarke’s eyes bore into his. “I love you.”

“Just as I love you, Clarke.”

His gaze dipped to rest on her lips for the briefest moment and, for a second, she thought he was going to kiss her.

_ He didn’t. _

She wasn’t too disappointed though, because she knew they had all the time in the world to figure this out.

This; whatever this  _ pull  _ between them was.

This; why they always seemed to orbit each other without colliding.

This; the love they had for each other that was so much more than what was spoken.

Neither of them said it, but they both knew the love they shared — it was more than just being  _ friends. _

(Because, after all, did friends look at friends like Bellamy looked at Clarke?)

She had to hope it would come with time — sometime after she forgave herself, and after she put the pieces of her broken soul back together, and after she figured out what life was going to look like after everything they’d been through.

_ She would hope as long as they were still breathing. _

“Then believe me,” he said,  _ “trust me.  _ You are forgiven. We have all the time in the world to work out everything, but…  _ please.  _ Stay. Stay with me. Stay with  _ us.” _

She had to bite her lip to keep from crying again. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“No more wars. No more fighting. No more hate and killing. Just peace and forgiveness and  _ life. _ It’s just me and you, and everyone we love on an uninhabited planet, who all  _ met again  _ against all odds.” His smile did funny things to her heart. “I’m first in a long line of people wanting to talk to you. We’ve been waiting for you for a while.”

Her heart lodged itself in her throat at that. “What?”

_ She had almost forgotten about everyone else. _

Bellamy stepped forward and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. Her eyes slid closed and she relished in this feeling — his lips on her skin, his hands on her hips, a rightness in her chest. 

And, to make sure this all wasn’t just a figment of her imagination, Clarke reached forward and pressed her hand to his chest.

_ There,  _ under her palm, was the strong and rhythmic beat of his heart.

She blew out a shaking breath and squeezed the tears from her eyes.

“Go see them,” he whispered, his lips ghosting against her skin.

He stepped away, and, for the first time, she saw the beginnings of a camp in the distance.

Murphy and Raven were both shoulder-to-shoulder with Emori and Echo as they fished along the shore. Niylah stood with Jackson, Miller, Gaia, and Indra; the group of them laughing at something over a half-built structure. Octavia and Levitt were pressed against each other to watch the flames dance in the fire; and, on the other side sat Jordan, and Hope, and—

Clarke’s feet stuck to the ground.

She froze as she took in the dozen of other people around the camp — people that she hadn’t seen in  _ years  _ — people that she never had hope of seeing again.

Harper.

And Monty.

_ And Diyoza. _

The three of them sat by their children around the fire, looking happy, and  _ alive.  _ Their smiles were just like she remembered, yet a hundred times brighter.

And —  _ there —  _ not much further away sat Jasper, with his arm around Maya, both of them looking youthful and carefree.

She turned back to Bellamy, her lips parted with shock and her hands shaking at her sides. If everything before was hard to believe, then this was impossible.

“I don’t—”

“When they said the  _ human species _ would transcend, they meant  _ all  _ of us. And we all chose to come back.”

Clarke turned back to the group in front of her, just in time to catch the tail-end of three people that made her heart drop to her stomach and her head spin.

“Mom?” Her voice broke on the word.

Emerging from the forest, carrying wood for their shelter, was Abby and Kane and—

_ “Wells?” _

She hadn’t thought about him in so long, never having really gotten over his sudden and traumatic death, and seeing him again made the world fall away.

Clarke moved forward without a second thought, moving towards the friend she lost so early on. While she wanted to run to his side, she was barely keeping herself upright, so she settled for a slow and steady pace. 

Before she could get too far, Bellamy called out to her again. “And Clarke?” They locked eyes. A smile lit up his face; one that was impossible for her not to return. “Welcome home.”

For the first time in a long time, that word meant something to her.

_ She was home. _

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, a lot of the early dialogue from this fic was taken right from the episode. The whole Clarke and Lexa conversation is straight from the show and I do not take credit for it.
> 
> I struggled to pick who would come back tbh, but this is what we're going with! I know I missed a TON of characters, but I really wanted to stick to who was shown in canon plus a few of my Ark babies (plus Maya, because I figured Jasper wouldn't have come back without her). If I'm missing your favourite, I'm sorry!
> 
> Also, sorry it isn't explicit Bellarke (as in, sorry they didn't kiss). At this point in time, Clarke doesn't know the status of Bellamy/Echo, and she's dealing with a lot of guilt, so I felt it probably was best to leave it here. Of course, in my head, they do get together, and I left a few promises to this future in the fic.
> 
> If you're sticking around even though the show is over, so am I!! I'll be here writing fic as long as people are here to read it haha.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated. Thank you for reading!
> 
> Paw  
> Come find me on Tumblr [here!](https://pawprinterfanfic.tumblr.com/)  
> Go [check out this beautiful piece of fanart](https://twitter.com/judescqrdan/status/1311772947439386631) to go along with this fic!


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